Udaipur and Jaipur

Saturday (Caulfield cup day)

We're in for a big day on the road today. We have 400 kilometres to get to Jaipur late this afternoon and with about 70 km/hour being the best you can achieve on this pseudo highway, I may as well be writing this and sorting out photos on the notebook.

We've been on the road for almost four hours and have just had our first break. It's been a pretty uneventful drive so far with a pair of pigeons having a shag on a shop awning being about the only highlight. All of the normal Indian things are still going on but you wouldn't expect any less. That said though, there have been dozens of kilometres of marble and granite quarries and plenty of trucks carrying individual rocks that must weigh 20 or 30 tonne each. The days are still scorchers in the high 30's and it's rare to see a cloud.

We heard this morning of the train cleaning up revellers celebrating last night. We were mixed up in those celebrations here as well. Throughout India we have seen those huge effigies built and ready to be exploded in fireworks last night. Parades through the narrow streets of Udaipur were loud and ongoing. 

We spent two nights in Udaipur, the city of lakes. Having spent yesterday touring, our whole group took the sunset cruise out on one of the lakes and then had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water. From the boat, we were treated to some great views looking back at the City Palace to the east and the sun setting behind the hills to the west.

Sunset on the lake in Udaipur

Our day yesterday was a full card and the busiest day we've had to date. Vivek, our guide hails from Udaipur and he's extremely proud of it and with good reason too. It is the only city we've encountered to date that takes a bit of pride and is making a conscious effort to clean the place up. There was nowhere near the amount of general rubbish lying around and definitely a reduction in the piles of rubble that we've seen everywhere else.

We did an early morning drive around a lake and stopped for a walk through some beautiful gardens. Then it was back on the bus for a temple run starting about 20 kilometres out of town. We visited the Nagda & Eklinji temples dating back to the 11th century. The Sas-Bahu temples display the most intricate marble carvings and architecture. The next on on the run was the huge Shiva temple at Eklinji. The walled complex contains 108 temples and it was a regimented line up and walk through with shoes off and definitely no cameras allowed. It was certainly an experience. 

Gardens in Udaipur

Nagda & Eklinji temples dating back to the 11th century.

When we eventually got back to town, we were a bit disappointed with the tour of the City Palace, the residence of the current King. Because of all the local celebrations, it was extremely busy and fighting our way through the narrow corridors in the heat detracted from the occasion. As far as palaces go, it doesn't rate with others we've visited but interesting never the less.

We were all ready for a sit down at the late lunch and it was very traditional fare dished up on large silver plates with small compartments for each dish. 

The afternoon concluded with a couple of market walk throughs and a tour of a working art gallery where the techniques and processes involved in paintings unique to this part of Rajasthan were explained. 

Scenes from Udaipur

We're getting closer to Jaipur and it’s getting dark. We’ll get out and about tomorrow and then post this blog.

Sunday

Jaipur is big. It has a population of 6 million but appears to be a lot better organised than many places in India. It is one of India's newest cities only established in the 18th century. Our drive through town this morning had us having a brief photo stop only at the Palace of Winds. It was good to be standing in front of a building that we've seen so many photos of in books and brochures. Webjet even use it on their itinerary. Large monkeys casually climbed around on the parapets of the adjacent shops above where we were taking photos.

Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds)

Our next stop was a long one as we had the Amber Fort to explore. The bus dropped us off at the bottom of a mountain below the fort and we were transferred into Jeeps to be transported up to the fort. There were five of us per Jeep (one in the front and four in the back) for the ride from hell up the mountain. The Jeep ran well for a diesel only operating on three cylinders! The fumes coming from it were atrocious. The driver thought he was Steve McQueen and only knew two speeds; flat out and stop. 
Other tourists made their way up by elephant.

 Amber Fort

The tour of the fort was good and the views from the top were spectacular to say the least. It was extremely hazy but you often looked down at the wall meandering around the mountains and were reminded of China's Great Wall. The fort is built on the Aravalli hills which is the same mountain range we were on about 400 kilometres back. It was busy too as it is a long weekend here and we are only about five hours drive from Delhi.
We were kept busy all day with a stop to get photos of the water Palace out on a big lake.

The Water Palace

We made our way to see carpets being made from wool, camel and silk. Everyone found it interesting and they did get a couple of sales off the bus.
After lunch we visited the City Palace museum for a tour of it. It was impressive and one courtyard was getting set up for a wedding tonight and catering for 1,000 guests. 

Jaipur City Palace

Adjacent to the Palace museum was the awe inspiring Jantar Mantar Observatory, a stone astrological and astronomical observatory built in the 18th century. It is a UNESCO world heritage listed sight and we toured it with a specialist guide who was able to explain the workings of the observatory.

At the Jantar Mantar Observatory

Tomorrow we head off to Agra.
Cheers and enjoy the photos.